Those fine folks (and apparently busy beavers) at AudioCodes have popped a new IP Phone firmware release out into the wild. Brings a nice new set of features/abilities to the 450HD in particular.
Please note that the official GA is still 3.0.1. Version 3.0.4 will be used as a candidate GA in the next several weeks. Admin and User’s manual will be ready in several weeks. Version 3.0.4 for all other 400HD models will be available within several weeks.
Here is a partial list of version 3.0 new features. For the full list of features, please refer to the Release Notes document:
· Boss-Admin (Delegated Line).
o Allows a relationship to be established between a boss' phone and an administrative secretary's phone, to streamline office workflow and enhance efficiency.
o Each phone can support up to five Bosses or Admins. One Boss can have up to five Admins. One Admin can have up to five Bosses. A many-to-many configuration is also supported.
o Call Pick-up
o Admin can forward to Boss' voicemail without picking up Boss' line
· HotDesk feature for enterprises that operate according to the 'touch-down desk' concept. Employees in these enterprises typically travel frequently to remote branches, or work in shifts. They can now sign in to a phone that is already signed in by another (CAP or regular) user without signing out the original user to whom the phone was assigned for primary use.
· AudioCodes' IP phones support Lync AutoDiscover Web Service Protocol [MS-OCDISCWS]. This feature improves discovery of the phone's SIP home server after signing in. Using the AutoDiscover procedure the phone is capable of finding its home server URL for a specific Skype for Business account, based on user credentials. It is specially efficient for Skype for Business online and hybrid environments, when phones must sign in to a different Skype for Business server according to the user’s account. Previously, the home server was found using DNS SRV records based only on a SIP account domain [MS-CONMGMT]. If AutoDiscover is unsuccessful, the phone falls back to SRV DNS.
· The phone's Call Log is synchronized with Microsoft's Exchange server. All devices that a user signs into are fully synchronized with the server. Each device reports every call from | to that user to the server. Each device then pulls the last 20 reported calls and performs synchronization. All lists in each device's Call Log except the Missed Calls list are synchronized.
· New screen theme reflects Skype for Business 2016 client look & feel | New softkeys match the de facto Skype for Business standard. This new feature ensures uniformity across all devices used by the same user, for Unified Communications. The following figure shows the new-theme idle screen:
· Dial Plan Normalization. Network administrators can enable and configure dial plans on the Microsoft Skype for Business server. Normalization rules can be downloaded from the server via in-band provisioning. The feature was fully certified and tested with Microsoft in this version. It was supported in previous versions, but without Microsoft certification.
· Multiple Emergency Numbers. A caller can select an emergency number from a list of emergency destinations. A dedicated number for the police, ambulance service, fire fighting service, etc., can be selected from a list of options. If the phone locks, emergency numbers will still be available and dialable via a new Emergency softkey that is displayed after the lock takes effect.
· Power Saving mode. When a phone enters Power Saving mode, the screen's brightness is reduced, lowering power consumption. The phone enters the mode after being inactive for a configured period (timeout). Any user activity returns the phone to regular Active mode.
· Malicious call tracing. Users can report a malicious call. If a user gets a call and wants to report it as malicious, the phone allows them to send a report to the Skype for Business server. To allow malicious call reporting by the phone, the feature must be enabled by the network administrator on the Skype for Business server (the option 'Enable malicious call tracing' must be selected).
· Sign-in can be cancelled during the signing in procedure. Users can cancel signing in after starting the sign-in process.
· Voice Quality Check. A new option to check IP phone voice quality has been added to the phone's Device Status menu.
Things seem to be moving forward very nicely at AudioCodes.
YMMV
